Those of us of a slightly older vintage remember Biden from the 1988 presidential race, when he was forced to pull out after the Dukakis campaign released a video showing he had plagiarised Neil Kinnock's "First Kinnock in a thousand generations" speech. He said...

Why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go a university? Why is it that my wife ... is the first in her family to ever go to college? Is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright? ... Is it because they didn't work hard? My ancestors who worked in the coal mines of northeast Pennsylvania and would come after 12 hours and play football for four hours? It's because they didn't have a platform on which to stand.

Kinnock had said...

Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Why is Glenys the first woman in her family in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Was it because our predecessors were thick? Does anybody really think that they didn't get what we had because they didn't have the talent or the strength or the endurance or the commitment? Of course not. It was because there was no platform upon which they could stand.

This is the man who if elected will become the leader of the free world. If this is the best Obama can come up with, no wonder his poll ratings are going down. The dreadful Clintons showed the way to McCain how Obama can be attacked with success. Americans never found a way of consigning Bill and Hilary to posterity. Now Hilary should be looking forward to the end of 4 year of MCain presidency! Pathetic. It is a great country.

Why would he copy that speech.It is a poor, typically Kinnochio speech. At least he amended it to take out the illogical premise of universities somehow keeping downs the Kinnocks for thousands of years.Yet, somehow Socialism has bought an end to 900 years of religious and social privilege.

someone should have put the hand of history on his throat and corrected his daft assertions long ago.

Obama has just lost the presidency. Not because he didn't chose Clinton as his running mate - there were many good reasons for that. But because he didn't consider there was a single woman who would have made a better choice than this classic older male Washington insider. He has greatly underestimated how many women who were not necessarily Clinton supporters felt regret at the way gender lost out to race in the primary contest. They might not have cared enough about Clinton to chose McCain over Obama, but - when combined with the obvious contempt Obama has shown her, and with the selection of such a traditional male as a running mate - there will be many of them who will refuse to buy into the supposed candidate of "change". It will serve to confirm the doubts they already had about whether he was really simply another shallow and self serving man.

The Republicans have presided over economic collapse, soaring inflation, Recession, 30% drop in property prices, rising unemployment, a disastrous war in Iraq and a society that is really very broken. If just any of these factors are applicable to Britain, the tory blogosphere foams at the mouth and blames Gordon Brown,socialism, european federalism, liberals etc. In the US, however you seem to think that the Republicans are not responsible, in fact its probably the fault of Clinton/gays/liberalism/Obama/hollywood (delete according to particular prejudice). I know that this is RIGHT wing blog, but is there no objectivity at all?

Oh no. Not you as well Iain. This is petty and truly partisan nonsense. Duval Patrick is not only his friend but also on his committee to elect. You might as well start accusing all politicians of plagiarising their speech writers and speech contributors.

Thank Iain for this blog - i wasnt sure to go to the US to campaign or not - and for sure i will now - we got to stop this man from being elected the leader of the greatest nation in the world (after the UK)

If a politician cannot even write his own speeches he is just hopeless.

Whilst you are helping destroy Obama's reputation - i hope Cameron sees the real Obama - he needs to know that this man is not for real - will you be exposing some other vile truths about him ? we need to destroy him by inuendo, and slight of hand. Keep up all the good work Iain. The Tory party and Republicans are all so proud of you.

To be honest when I heard his choice of VP on the radio this morning, I thought, oh well, at least Obama's shown us that an African American can be president, but the next president would be McCain. I made a bet with my brother that the 1st African American president would be a Republican. I now feel I could win my bet. Obama's big mistake - fighting the election on foreign policy/national security by choosing Biden. You can never win against Republicans on foreign policy, the way Americans think these days. He'd have stood a chance if he went for a candidate that inspires on the economy. That candidate is Clinton. Whatever you think of her, she knows her stuff. If he chose Clinton or one of the female Dem governors or Pelosi, he'd have won. Who knows, I could eat my words on the morning of Nov 5th. p.s. anyone wondering why my bet? The 1st African American gov was elected in 1879 - he was Republican. A guy called Pinchback. Can't remember his 1st name.

Interestingly, despite Biden's attacks on McCain during today's unofficial acceptance speech, he was the one in 2004 who advised Kerry to pick McCain as his running mate. At one point this ticket was considered unbeatable, but it appears that McCain got cold feet about turning away from the GOP. Nonetheless, Biden's 2004 endorsement of McCain as a suitable VP is quite telling!

On a more constructive note, I'm sure Biden will be good for Obama as they should be able to bounce ideas off each other. The problem, though, is that Biden's 36-year history in the Senate goes against Obama's message of change. I still think someone like Bill Richardson would have fitted the bill in a more meaningful way, but it does appear that McCain has forced Obama to pick someone like Biden (strong foreign affairs background, "safe pair of hands", potential attack dog) because of Obama's perceived weaknesses in these areas.

All we need now is Joe Lieberman as McCain's running mate: two North Eastern, white, ultraliberal, super-hawkish, Likudnik Joes together - Biden and Lieberman, each with a very good chance of becoming President between now and 2012, one by the assassination of the dusky President Obama, the other by the expiration of the aged President McCain.

Obama is still better than the alternative, not that that is saying anything. But to whom are these running mates designed to appeal? In whose interest is each ticket being balanced? Balanced by what, exactly?

Enough of this pandering to Hillary Clinton, with her eighteen million cracks. There is no need for the ballot paper to feature a candidate acceptable to man-haters, to black-haters, to illegal immigrants who refuse to learn English, to people who wish the foreign policy of the United States to be dictated by a not necessarily governing party in another country, or to financial dependents of the Gulf monarchies.

And note that the South has become the American equivalent of the North of England or the West Country, with no one on the Democratic ticket, and doubtless with no one on the Republican ticket either.

In fairness Biden made the comment 7-8 times acknowledging Kinnock, only failing to do so to the final time..

Pretty stupid, and he has repeated a tendency to say politically unwise things, but IMO he was probably one of the strongest candidates in both the GOP and Democratic primaries and is more substantial than Obama who - for all we can tell - is "just words".